Terms
& Conditions
please read carefully & completely.
·
Important Information.
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Terms & Conditions
of Use.
·
Ten Myths about
Copyright, by Brad Templeton.
Important Information
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Terms &
conditions
The “no you
cant’s, Maybe you cans…
Terms and Conditions
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2005 or from inception.
Ten
Myths about Copyright
by
Brad Templeton
“If it doesn’t have a copyright notice,
it’s not copyrighted.”
This was true in the past, but today almost all major nations follow the
It
is true that a notice strengthens the protection, by warning people, and by
allowing one to get more and different damages, but it is not necessary.
If it looks copyrighted, you should assume it is.
This applies to pictures, too. You
may not scan pictures from magazines and post them to the net, and if you come
upon something unknown, you shouldn’t post that either.
The
correct form for a notice is “Copyright (dates) by (author/owner)” You can
use C in a circle instead of “Copyright” but “©” has never been given
legal force. The phrase “All
Rights Reserved” used to be required in some nations but is now not needed.
“If I don’t charge for it, it’s not a
violation.”
False. Whether
you charge can affect the damages awarded in court, but that’s essentially the
only difference. It’s still a
violation if you give it away--and there can still be heavy damages if you hurt
the commercial value of the property.
“If it’s posted to Usenet it’s in the
public domain.”
False.
Nothing is in the public domain anymore unless the owner explicitly puts
it in the public domain (*). Explicitly,
as in you have a note from the author/owner saying, “I grant this to the
public domain.” those exact words
or words very much like them.
Some argue that posting
to Usenet implicitly grants permission to everybody to copy the posting within
fairly wide bounds, and other feel that Usenet is an automatic store and forward
network where all the thousands of copies made are done at the command (rather
than the consent) of the poster. This
is a matter of some debate, but even if the former is true (and in this
writer’s opinion we should all pray it isn’t true) it simply would suggest
posters are implicitly granting permissions “for the sort of copy one might
expect when one posts to Usenet” and in no case is this a placement of
material into the public domain. Furthermore
it is very difficult for an implicit licence to supersede an explicitly stated
licence that the copier was aware of.
Note that all this assumes the poster had the right to post the item in the
first place. If the poster didn’t,
then all the copies are pirate, and no implied licence or theoretical reduction
of the copyright can take place.
(*)
Copyrights can expire after a long time, putting something into the
public domain, and there are some fine points on this issue regarding older
copyright law versions. However,
none of this applies to an original article posted to USENET.
Note that granting something to the public domain is a complete abandonment of
all rights. You can’t make
something “PD for non-commercial use.” If
your work is PD, other people can even modify one byte and put their name on it.
“My
posting was just fair use!”
See other notes on fair use for a detailed answer, but bear the following in
mind:
The “fair use”
exemption to copyright law was created to allow things such as commentary,
parody, news reporting, research and education about copyrighted works without
the permission of the author. Intent
and damage to the commercial value of the work are important considerations.
Are you reproducing an article from the New York Times because you needed
to in order to criticize the quality of the New York Times, or because you
couldn’t find time to write your own story, or didn’t want your readers to
have to pay to log onto the online services with the story or buy a copy of the
paper? The former is probably fair
use, the latter probably aren’t.
Fair use is almost
always a short excerpt and almost always attributed.
(One should not use more of the work than is necessary to make the
commentary.) it should not harm the
commercial value of the work (which is another reason why reproduction of the
entire work is generally forbidden.)
Note that most inclusion of text in Usenet follow-ups is for commentary and
reply, and it doesn’t damage the commercial value of the original posting (if
it has any) and as such it is fair use. Fair
use isn’t an exact doctrine, either. The
court decides if the right to comment overrides the copyright on an individual
basis in each case. There have been
cases that go beyond the bounds of what I say above, but in general they don’t
apply to the typical net misclaim of fair use.
It’s a risky defense to attempt.
“If you don’t defend your copyright you
lose it.”
False. Copyright is effectively
never lost these days, unless explicitly given away.
You may be thinking of trade marks, which can be weakened or lost if not
defended.
“Somebody has that name copyrighted!”
You can’t
“copyright a name,” or anything short like that.
Titles usually don’t qualify- - but I doubt you may write a song
entitled “Everybody’s got something to hide except for me and my monkey.”
(J.lennon/P.McCartney).
You can’t copyright
words, but you can trademark them, generally by using them to refer to your
brand of a generic type of product or service.
Like an “Apple” computer. Apple
computer “owns” that word applied to computers, even though it is also an
ordinary word. Apple Records owns it
when applied to music. Neither owns
the word on its own, only in context, and owning a mark doesn’t mean complete
control- - see a more detailed treatise on this law for details.
You can’t use
somebody else’s trademark in a way that would unfairly hurt the value of the
mark, or in a way that might make people confuse you with the real owner of the
mark, or which might allow you to profit from the mark’s god name.
For example, if I were giving advice on music videos, I would be very
wary of trying to label my works with a name like “mtv.” :-)
“They can’t get me, defendant in court
have powerful rights!”
Copyright law is mostly
civil law. If you violate copyright
you would usually get sued, not charged with a crime.
“Innocent until proven guilty” is a principle of criminal law, as is
“proof beyond a reasonable doubt.” Sorry,
but in copyright suits, these don’t apply the same way or at all.
It’s mostly which
side and set of evidence the judge or jury accepts or believes more, though the
rules vary based on the type of infringement.
In civil cases you can even be made to testify against your own
interests.
“Oh, so copyright violation isn’t a
crime or anything?”
Actually, recently in
the
“It
doesn’t hurt anybody- - in fact it’s free advertising.”
It’s up to the owner
to decide if they want the free ads or not.
If they want them, they will be sure to contact you.
Don’t rationalize whether it hurts the owner or not, *ask* them.
Usually that’s not too hard to do.
Time past, ClariNet published the very funny Dave Barry column to a large
and appreciative Usenet audience for a fee, but some person didn’t ask, and
forwarded it to a mailing list, got caught, and the newspaper chain that employs
Dave Barry pulled the column from the net, pissing off everybody who enjoyed it.
Even if you can’t think of how the
author or owner gets hurt, think about the fact that piracy on the net hurts
everybody who wants a chance to use this wonderful new technology to do more
than read other people’s flamewars.
“They e-mailed me a copy, so I can post
it.”
To have a copy is not to have the copyright.
All the E-mail you write is copyrighted.
However, E-mail is not, unless previously agreed, secret.
So you can certainly *report* on what E-mail you are sent, and reveal
what it says. You can even quote
parts of it to demonstrate. Frankly,
somebody who sues over an ordinary message might well get no damages, because
the message has no commercial value, but if you want to stay strictly in the
law, you should ask first. On the
other hand, don’t go nuts if somebody posts your E-mail.
If it was an ordinary non-secret personal letter of minimal commercial
value with no copyright notice (like 99.9% of all E-mail), you probably won’t
get any damages if you sue them.
In
Summary
These days, almost all things are
copyrighted the moment they are written, and no copyright notice is
required.
Copyright is still violated whether you charged money or not, only
damages are affected by that.
Postings to the net are not granted to the public domain, and don’t
grant you any permission to do further copying except *perhaps* the sort of
copying the poster might have expected in the ordinary flow of the net.
Fair use is a complex doctrine meant to allow certain valuable social
purposes. Ask your self why you are
republishing what you are posting and why you couldn’t have just rewritten it
in you r own words.
Copyright is not lost because you don’t defend it; that’s a concept
from trademark law. The ownership of
names is also from trademark law, so don’t say somebody has a name
copyrighted.
Copyright law is mostly civil law where the special rights of criminal
defendants you hear so much about don’t apply.
Watch out, however, as new laws are moving copyright violation into the
criminal realm.
Don’t rationalize that you are helping the copyright holder; often it’s
not that hard to ask permission.
Posting E-mail is technically a violation, but revealing facts from
E-mail isn’t, and for almost all typical E-mail, nobody could wring any
damages from you for posting it.
Permission is granted to freely copy this document in electronic form, or to
print for personal use. If you had
not seen a notice like this on the document, you would have to assume you did
not have permission to copy it. This
document is still protected by you-know-what even though it has no copyright
notice.
“Copyright”
2006-*O.F.I.www.WaFruit.com
WaFruit@WaFruit.com or SoundsAboutRight@yahoo.com
* Or From Inception.